then the output is empty (and not the integer coding the date). Why?
2) Please provide code to convert the tDateAsSeconds (for instance: after retrieving it back from the database) back to a date and to display it in a readable format via

You could use CONVERT() function in you SELECT query when you get the data from the database
ex. "SELECT CONVERT(VARCHAR(24),theDate,113) FROM myTable" Where theDate is the column name.
Assuming your date is stored in seconds in your database this would return the date in dd mon yyyy hh:mi:ss:mmm.